Sketchblog Chris Chien: December 2014

Mastercopies - Theme Park Studies

A lot of my art teachers say that if you are to do studies - you should only do old masters like "Sargent, Rembrant" etc... and avoid doing copies of other concept artists. I think that is absolutely ridiculous! That's like a football coach telling his football players to practice swimming to get good at football. There may be some supplemental benefits - but overall it doesn't really make sense. C'mon.

So here I wanted to practice doing a birdseye view. So I took the original image, put a gaussian blur on it, and repainted the image on top of the original while color picking and toggling the layers on/off. It took me 9 hours. Good workout. Without this photoshop technique - it probably would've taken me 2-3 times as long!

done. this was a Fox theme park - dunno which one.

Chris Turner study 1.5 hrs - love this guy's work.

another study - not sure who this is... 2 hrs

Joey Chou Study - 3 hrs

And after the studies, what I do is another piece is similar in style and subject to the original master copy. Just to synthesis the information and see what I learned...

"Swamp Town" - 30 minutes. inspired by Joey Chou style.

red moon spaceship - spit paint

Sketchbook 2014 - Mostly Pretty Asian Girls/ Cosplay/ Disney Elsa, Rapunzel Edits + Little Bruce Wayne (Gotham)

So I haven't been posted many sketches on my blog because I mostly post my sketches on Instagram now. You can follow me here @legendbrush - although to be honest - it's mostly for my name paintings, and I only rarely post sketches. I hope to post more sketches - cuz it's really fun and it seems to be really popular among my followers. lol

Ahran Cho + Flamis

Pretty Girl Studies - Tracing and Color Picking

So these studies were done in a method that most artists would be afraid to do. Usually art teachers will teachers you 1) to draw from life, 2) if you copy a photo, don't copy it exactly - make sure to edit and design the shapes 3) don't color pick in photoshop.

I friggen traced photos in photoshop, and color picked the heck out of those photos!! They were done super quick in like 30 minutes to 2 hrs. There were a lot of benefits from doing this.

1) You learn a lot from tracing. I really like artists like J. Scott Campbell and Bruce Timm - but all their girls and poses look the same cuz of their habits and muscle memory. Tracing teaches you new habits because you aren't really drawing with your own "hand."

2) It's quick and pleasurable! It's really exhilarating to finish up a nice painting in 30 minutes. It makes me want to continue and be persistent in the studies. If I were to do it traditionally, I know it would take me at least 4 hrs for a nice full color study. If I were to do a traditional 30 minute gouache painting - I wouldn't capture any of the detail. But I think the detail is the best part! The detail expresses the fashion and style of the model.

3) Subtleties. I layer the reference on top of my "painting" and I toggle it on and off. It trains my eye to be very discerning and recognize the subtleties and nuances of the photo. When I'm free painting it - I think everyone kind of goes back to their habits and tricks to make it look good. But when you are copying the photo dead on - there is a rigidity there that really trains you and makes you stronger.

I draw in my sketchbook and paint on traditionally as well. I just think this Photoshop tracing technique is a great way to compliment traditional studies.